Attachment for managing cleared woods

[snpower]

Happy Holidays!

Recently I had a forestry mulching service clear much of our wooded lot. It looks fantastic! So, in order to maintain it - dig up saplings, weeds, undergrowth, etc. I am looking at a ratchet rake for my John Deere 1025R. I previously had a rear rake but never used it. Other thoughts were the rear dethatcher from Good Works. This seems less ideal but I have a BXpanded tooth bar on my bucket so between the two I might be ok, and the dethatcher would be good for fall leaf cleanup. Any thoughts?

 

[paulsharvey]

So, I guess the question is; what do you want it too look like? Do you want grass, and non-woody veg to take over? Are you wanting to plant grass, cover, or food plots? If so, I would disc, staying about 4 ft from the base of the trees. I know a 1025 isn't going to pull much of a disc, but the problem with a mulcher is, it doesn't do anything about the root systems, and they will quickly shoot woody stems back up. Or is it a general wood chip/leaf thing you want to clean up?

Without seeing what was there before the mulcher; I would expect a lot of regrowth come early summer, once it starts raining. (or when ever your rains start; here, springs are can be extremely dry)

If it's the leaves/wood chips that your concerned with; I'd try to rake/blow/burn

 

[diesel85]

Why not get a flail mower and mow it occasionally? It'll mulch up small branches and get the little stubble that starts popping up. Along with mulching up the leaves.

Would do much better than a brush cutter.

 

[paulsharvey]

I haven't looked at the Good Works Dethatcher, but typically, they aren't nearly heavy duty enough to stand up to 1 or 2" roots/stubble. Think you would destroy the attachment, unless it's build for that?

 

[old and tired]

Herbicide sprayer and a leaf blower for your leaves....

 

[Carl_NH]

Looks clean and no sapling stumps or rocks to hang up on - use one of your GT's and mow at the highest setting a few times a year would be easiest. Get mulching or gator blades - they will chop up the leaves and are good for the soil and remaining trees.

I have a ratchet rake and it doesn't like rough/rocky ground - the loader jumps over the difficult stuff and makes more of a mess exposing the remaining tree roots you dig up trying to remove the saplings. If you still are set on removing them, you have a tooth bar so no need to get a RR IMO.

For stumps sticking out cut them down level with old chainsaw or trimmer with brush blade.

 

[2manyrocks]

I'm currently having forestry mulching done. The operator recommended spraying in a couple of months to prevent regrowth and then keeping it cut. I probably won't try to rake any of the chunks left from mulching, but if I did, I'd use a rear rake. The teeth are deep enough to move a good amount of material and the spring action will help to keep anything from breaking if they happen to hang on a smaller stump or rock buried in the mulch.

Just walking over some of the area, I'm seeing pieces of locust thorns in places that I will need to pick up by hand and burn.

There are some trees and stumps I will cut with a chainsaw.

 

[JCoastie]

Looks like my yard, the best and quickest option we have found is a good zero turn mower, hands down, we have 6 acres.

We did use a landscape rake to pile up a lot of the mulcher shreddings, and now just mow it.

This is one of a few mulch piles we have, and we are 2 years post mulch, things are starting to break down and a decent compost is forming. Maybe another year or 2 and it'll be great for the garden, for now, the dogs like it.

Grass is starting to fill in the areas that get enough light. As above, we've found zero turn mowing is the fastest and easiest to get around the trees. Unless you want a golf course, just mow the leaves a time or two and they'll be gone for the most part.

 

[Snobdds]

Just mow it. That's all you have to do. Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill like some will have you do.

Either a brush cutter or flail mower.

Simple.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

How big is your wooded lot?

If it was me, I'd just go over it a few times each season, maybe once a month depending on regrowth, with my 3 pt brush mower set as low as it would go.

Previous poster recommending mulching blades on your GT isn't a bad idea either. Just with smaller, thinner blades, you'll probably have to mow it more frequently to stay more ahead of the regrowth.

After doing that for the first couple of seasons, it will be much easier to keep it looking nice.

 

[bearthebruce]

I'm with those that are saying just mow it.

We use a heavy duty zero turn, the deck pulled to highest setting. What we cannot mow with the ZT we do with the tractor's brush hog. What we can't do with the tractor, we do with our walk behind brush hog.

We cleared a lot of land, seeded with a mix designed for low light, and now maintain with monthly mowings. So far it has worked well for us.

Now if we were not on the top of the mountain with steep slopes... we could gitter dun faster...

Leaves? We blow those off the planted grassy areas only.. we leave them in the other areas. As we will plant more grass when we have done more ground leveling and stump removal, the area to be cleared of leaves with increase. We use the ZT and a Billy Goat to clear the leaves.

 

[airbiscuit]

Rotary Cutter

or Flail Mower

 

[cathy liebchen]

We just bush hog it, in a season or two grasses crowd all the woody out

 

[ArlyA]

Happy Holidays!

Recently I had a forestry mulching service clear much of our wooded lot. It looks fantastic! So, in order to maintain it - dig up saplings, weeds, undergrowth, etc. I am looking at a ratchet rake for my John Deere 1025R. I previously had a rear rake but never used it. Other thoughts were the rear dethatcher from Good Works. This seems less ideal but I have a BXpanded tooth bar on my bucket so between the two I might be ok, and the dethatcher would be good for fall leaf cleanup. Any thoughts?

We live in the northern hardwoods which is different than there. On our trails here we mow then once or twice per summer and grasses take over which retards the tree shoots.

 

[snpower]

Can I use a flail mower to mulch leaves on my turf lawn and eliminate my trac vac? I would want to avoid really cutting the grass I am guessing.

 

[Carl_NH]

You could but my gut feeling would be the flail will want to "push" them instead of chopping them up. Just get a set of Gator blades for your JD machines, no need for another mower.

I have a Trac Vac too, and Ferris ZT with Gator Blade and windrow the leaves chopping them finer first, then suck them up - makes for a faster cleanup too. This reduces the volume by 50% or more and means less dumping and better composting.

 

[snpower]

You could but my gut feeling would be the flail will want to "push" them instead of chopping them up. Just get a set of Gator blades for your JD machines, no need for another mower.

I have a Trac Vac too, and Ferris ZT with Gator Blade and windrow the leaves chopping them finer first, then suck them up - makes for a faster cleanup too. This reduces the volume by 50% or more and means less dumping and better composting.

Gator Blades are awesome - I use them now

 

[2515R Dude]

Looks like my yard, the best and quickest option we have found is a good zero turn mower, hands down, we have 6 acres.

We did use a landscape rake to pile up a lot of the mulcher shreddings, and now just mow it.

This is one of a few mulch piles we have, and we are 2 years post mulch, things are starting to break down and a decent compost is forming. Maybe another year or 2 and it'll be great for the garden, for now, the dogs like it.

View attachment 834405
Grass is starting to fill in the areas that get enough light. As above, we've found zero turn mowing is the fastest and easiest to get around the trees. Unless you want a golf course, just mow the leaves a time or two and they'll be gone for the most part.

View attachment 834406

100% agree,

 

[nyone]

I would also just mow it. No reason to spray things you can get to with a mower.

 

[leonz]

Can I use a flail mower to mulch leaves on my turf lawn and eliminate my trac vac? I would want to avoid really cutting the grass I am guessing.

Yes, you can easily use a flail mower with 2, 3 or 4 rows of side slicer knives to do this.
The cup, scoop or hammer type of flail mower knives will not recut the grass and leaves
as they cannot create the amount of suction lift required to do this.

If you would like help in buying the flail right mower for your use I would be more than
happy to help you with your search for the right flail mower.
Please send me a PM so I can help you with this.